The Art of the Architect (Paperback or Softback)

This book celebrates the role that drawing and watercolor painting play in architecture. The beauty of the result will be inspiring to anyone who loves architecture and the attendant arts.

The Art of the Architect celebrates the role that drawing and watercolor painting play in architecture. Architectural drawing as we know it dates from the Renaissance, but with the arrival of computer design programs this ancient art—formed of pen, pencil, and brushstrokes on paper—is sometimes regarded as obsolete. The work of Michael G. Imber, whose watercolors and sketches are published for the first time in paperback, shows what a vital contribution they can still make at every stage of an architectural project. His personal example is followed by his colleagues in a visual culture that permeates his practice, Michael G. Imber Architects.

Whatever the place occupied by photographs, simulations, and visual graphics in the design process of today, hand drawing still facilitates a moment of deeper connection between an architect and his environment. Unlike a snap taken on a smart phone, a hand drawing is an active response to its subject: what is understood about a place in sensory terms cannot help but inform the finished design, creating buildings which maintain the balance between the way we live and the natural world around us.

Not only do Michael’s sketches allow him to visualize his environment more clearly, but they provide an immediate visual language with which he can communicate with his team, his craftsmen, and his clients. Pen and wash is a suggestive, selective, and emotive technique. Rich in examples of the art and philosophy that have inspired him over the years, this book is both an ode to a precious art form, and a visual delight to anyone who may turn its pages. Michael’s attention to light, color, line, shape, and space in these “working paintings” reveals a love for the medium that extends from his architectural practice into the time he spends both traveling, and at his summer home on an island in Maine. The beauty of the result will be inspiring to anyone who loves architecture and the attendant arts.

Michael G. Imber is a native Texan who grew-up exploring the unique landscapes of the West and the architecture built by its rugged inhabitants. Michael did his apprenticeship on the East Coast where he worked on projects such as the Deputy Secretary of State’s office and the University of Virginia. Michael returned to Texas and formed his own firm over twenty-five years ago in San Antonio. Today, Michael G. Imber Architects is internationally known for architecture reflecting landscape and culture. As well as work spanning the U.S., Michael G. Imber Architects has worked in over a dozen countries. Its projects have ranged from churches and seminaries, colleges, hotels, and town centers to ranches and houses — all a unique reflection of the places in which they are built. Michael’s work has been widely published and he was recently named one of twenty-five ‘leaders’ in a “Who’s Who in Traditional Architecture” by Traditional Building Magazine. He was the recipient of the Arthur Ross Award in 2007 for his contribution to civic and traditional architecture, and has won seven national Palladio Awards and ten Staub Awards. In 2013, Michael released his first book, Ranches, Villas, and Houses serving as a monograph devoted to his work, and in 2022 was named the Robert A.M. Stern Visiting Professor of Classical Architecture at Yale.